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N E W S FEBRUARY 6 L E H A V R E SANDY SLIGHT A glitch in the law is keeping co-op owners from receiving federal storm recovery grants BY MELISSA CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com A glitch in the law is keeping co-op owners from receiving federal storm recovery grants, officials said. According to Congressmember Steve Israel, co-ops are shouldering the costs of repair for Sandyinflicted damages because they are categorized as “business associations,” making them ineligible for federal grants — only loans. The Stafford Act, which governs how the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responds to major disasters, does not include the word “co-op” in the law, Israel said. But there is no statute that purposefully bans co-op owners from being eligible for grants, a privilege given to homeowners. “FEMA is taking an overzealous interpretation to this,” said Israel. “It discriminates against co-op owners. It’s one thing to be devastated by a hurricane. It’s another to be devastated by a loophole.” Cryder Point Co-ops suffered $1 million in damage that left their waterfront community’s pier in shambles, said Phil Resnick, vice president of the co-op’s board of directors. More than half of the total buildings in Glen Oaks Village endured “moderate to severe shingle loss,” leading to $250,000 in infrastructural damages, said Bob Friedrich, the co-op’s president. The unbudgeted costs also include the removal of downed trees. “Housing co-ops are not business associations. We do not generate income based on corporate or private profit,” said Warren Schreiber, president of the Bay Terrace Community Alliance. “Many middle-class shareholders who are already experiencing financial difficulties will not be able to absorb the additional charges.” 6 LEHAVRE COURIER | FEBRUARY 2013 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Local leaders want FEMA to make co-ops eligible for recovery grants. From left are Friedrich, City Councilmember Mark Weprin, Israel and State Senator Tony Avella. Co-op tax relief bill passed by legislature BY MELISSA CHAN downtown Manhattan being developed as luxury mchan@queenscourier.com condominiums and office buildings. “This bill only benefits the rich,” said State The State Legislature has passed a long-awaited Senator Ruben Diaz of the Bronx. “It is a tax relief bill for city co-op and condo owners, multimillion dollar program of rent exemptions despite a cluster of lawmakers who voted against and abatement for landlords who renovate their it.buildings.” He said it does nothing to protect The bill, approved by the State Senate and tenants. Assembly, includes raising a partial tax abatement Diaz said he feared capital improvements under from 17.5 percent to 25 percent and extending the J-51 program would lead to landlords raising the J-51 program to June 30, 2015. The abatement rents on their tenants. reduces the difference in property taxes paid by “To vote for this bill, we might be sending the Class 2 co-op and condo properties and one, two message, an impure message, that we are only and three family homes in Class 1, and the J-51 working for the landlords and against the tenants,” gives owners partial property tax exemptions for Diaz said. capital improvements. State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky said she voted “This is a major victory for the vast majority in favor of the bill because of the vital abatements of co-op owners in northeast Queens, including to city co-op and condo owners but believed thousands of senior citizens on fixed incomes,” the abatements to luxury developments were a said Assemblymember Ed Braunstein. “giveaway of city money.” But seven Democratic state senators and “The developers would be building this anyway. seven Democratic assemblymembers opposed They don’t need the tax abatement,” she said. “We the omnibus bill, which included a measure that unfortunately can’t pick and choose the parts of gives tax abatements to 15 plots in midtown and the bill we want to vote for.” State Senator Brad Hoylman of Manhattan said he was “outraged” the abatement extensions were put into a packaged bill and “rushed through the Rules Committee onto the Senate fl oor with only 30 minutes’ notice.” “The bill subverted the normal committee process and required an ‘up or down’ vote, which was diffi cult as the bill contained some provisions that gave me and my Democratic colleagues pause,” he said. The bill requires another Senate vote before Governor Andrew Cuomo can sign it into law. Its assurances come after panic spread throughout co-op and condo communities at the end of June, when the Legislature adjourned session without extending the J-51 program and the expired abatement. Fear mounted in November after elected offi cials said the Legislature would not reconvene to pass promised relief. A pair of audits released last year by the city’s comptroller offi ce found the Department of Finance at fault for causing upheavals in condo and co-op property values — a determining factor in property taxes — when it changed its formula for calculating them in fi scal year 2011-12.


LH022013
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